Meeting Planner Careers

Joining local business organizations and attending networking meetings or socials are essential tasks for meeting planners trying to break into the business or expand their current client base. Networking functions are an excellent way to meet potential clients, connect with local vendors, find new staff members as your business grows and get your name out there as a meeting or event planner who is accepting new clients. Networking socials and meetings are also a great way for shy or reserved folks to practice speaking about their business to strangers and to work on their people skills, which are particularly important to meeting planners.

Of course, it is not enough to simply attend networking functions and introduce yourself around. Following up with the folks you meet is just as important as making that initial contact. While you may have handed out your business cards and spoke about your meeting or event planning services, you must keep in mind that each attendee met plenty of other people as well; therefore, you must take extra steps to ensure that they remember you and that you will be in the back of their minds when they are need of planning services or when one of their friends or colleagues asks if they happen to know a good event planner.

You just got your first meeting client, and you’re worried because she doesn’t have enough money to make it look good. She wants high tech gadgets, a nice reception, and a keynote speaker. She has the funds for a coffee bar, hand printed event schedules, and a motivational tape from the library. How in the world are you going to deal with that?

First of all, know that you can. While most event centers offer high tech gadgetry, very few clients really need to make use of everything a center offers. Often wifi, a laptop, and a projection screen will do for rooms; and although your client may think four rooms are required, you can show how three rooms can work better.

Instead of dinners and receptions, why not try a cuisine sampler and open socials? You can get some wonderful food samples from caterers that fit themes like international cuisine, festival foods, seafood, wild game, vegetarian dishes, desserts, etc.–all for much less than a full service evening dinner with a speaker.

And about the speaker–why not look to a local non-profit for an inexpensive speaker? Some speakers are free. They are happy to come and speak about their missions, which range from human service to animal causes, just for the opportunity to get their causes more press. In the meantime they motivate your audiences with their selfless efforts and the hardships they have over come.

No doubt you will be facing other corners you need to cut when your clients don’t have a lot of money, but your job is to be creative. Be creative with costs as well and your client will not only call you back, but hand out your business card to her friends. If you don’t, your meeting will look like a kindergarten class with no toys or graham crackers.